this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
231 points (98.7% liked)

World News

39041 readers
2660 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Japan slips into recession, becoming the 4th-largest economy, behind the US, China and now Germany.

Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.

The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023.

It contracted 2.9% in July-September. Two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession.

Japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtaken by China’s. Japan’s nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, while Germany’s was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.

all 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 46 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And yet they complain that our economy is in shambles. It's never enough for these capitalist ghouls.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Truth is they are both going down at a different pace.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Germany just passed a €72 billion defense budget. As they say: "When the economy is sore, join a war."

[–] DdCno1@kbin.social 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Did you miss the developments in Eastern Europe that necessitate this increase in spending?

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

No. Just pointing out that military spending is a very efficient way to increase economic activity. The US economy would not be doing very well if it wasn't for all the military spending.

But Germany is doing it without putting it all on the big credit card like the Americans, so I'll take Germany's economy and well-advised budgeting any day of the week.

[–] ChrisMcMillan@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It still amazes me that a country that small with that little natural resource as Germany can have such a strong and big economy!

[–] notapantsday@feddit.de 63 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Our resource used to be people, but we're in the process of completely fucking that up. Education going downhill quickly, rapidly aging population paired with a massive push against immigration, the most important jobs having some of the worst pay and working conditions...

We're in a race to the bottom. Japan mas have overtaken us, but we're folfowing closely behind.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

One thing‘s for certain: Germans remain world champions at complaining. Even the brits got nothing on us.

[–] homoludens@feddit.de 12 points 9 months ago

Are you complaining about that?

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I can't tell if you're talking about Germany or the US. It's believable either way.

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

Why would they be talking about the USA?

[–] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm so sorry to hear that. I remember thinking that your education system sounded top notch, uh, quite a few years ago, when a German gentleman on a forum I was on was explaining why students were protesting against the introduction of a nominal fee for university studies, which had previously been free, right?

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

I may be mostly free but the problem is an outdated curriculum, lack of investment. Like almost every infrastructure here it got kaputtgespart (saving money until it's broken).

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

Oh I suppose it's still not as bad as other places. It was free and fully financed by taxes because it was seen as a societal investment, now it's ~300€ per semester at my university and still mostly financed through taxes. But the neoliberals sure didn't impose that without a fight! And they would probably have set it higher if they could.

I mean I know I'm complaining from a position of privilege here (sorry US debt slave bros), but still, fuck that shit. Cutting the most financially vulnerable people in society out of an education is what that amounts to. In other words, it's just another front in class warfare.

[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"We have declining birthrates and extremely strict immigration rules."

"Why is our economy failing?"

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You know not everything is a problem of too little or too much immigration....

[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What? Yeah except I'm not talking about everything I'm talking about the economy. Dying countries have low immigration and Japan's self-imposed rules are pushing it into a recession because a lack of human workers leads to a weak workforce.

But I'd love to hear your theory on why Japan has fallen behind Germany.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 10 points 9 months ago

It's ridiculous. My friend married a Japanese woman and they had a boy. If the boy wasn't born in Japan, he wouldn't be a Japanese citizen in the future. Meanwhile, his Mexican father can't aspire to be a Japanese, even if his whole family is and they have been married for years.

Is even more ridiculous for people like this boy, since their double nationality rules are kind of weird to me. Whatever, it's just nuts.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

But their public transport sucks.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 9 months ago

Still much better than global average... Germany is probably in the top 10% of countries with the best public transport.

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago

I wish Canadian public transport sucked as much as Germany's

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023.

"Japan’s top currency diplomat Masato Kanda communicated his displeasure around rapid yen moves which he says could have an adverse effect on the economy.

Mr Kanda even went as far as to suggest deploying FX intervention as a potential solution to the matter," Richard Snow, a market strategist at DailyFX, said.

"Japanese officials previously intervened in the FX market in September and October 2022 when it sold dollars and bought yen to strengthen the value of the local currency.

Cingari also noted that labour shortages represent a bottleneck to economic activity, while a trade-driven recovery is also unlikely amid stagnating export and import dynamics.

"On a more optimistic note, market financing conditions have eased recently, with expectations of continued relief facilitated by more accessible bank lending," he said.


The original article contains 474 words, the summary contains 159 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Shame it don't see anything of it, I just see a country falling into ruins and disrepair

[–] Downcount@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

LOL, a little over dramatic, aren't you?

[–] DocSportello@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago
[–] DdCno1@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

What on Earth are you on about?